Clean Green Machine wins at national competition

Submitted photoNick Pietricola talks to Kevin Thyne who is driving the hydrogen fuel-cell car built by Cicero-North Syracuse High School students.Cicero, NY - A year ago, Cicero-North Syracuse High School students built a hydrogen fuel-cell car that used energy equivalent to -- if it had been gas -- a little more than 1,400 miles per gallon.

That was quite a feat, but the C-NS Performance Engineering Team was determined to make their Clean Green Machine go a little further this year.

View full sizeSubmitted photoThe Cicero-North Syracuse High School Performance Engineering Team poses with its re-designed hydrogen fuel-cell car at the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas 2010 competition in Houston. MEMBERS OF the team are (from left) advisor Martin Miner, "Mike" Madonna, Alex Julian, Kevin Thyne, Tyler Mannise, Joe Scheuer and Michael Ann Baker.
"Last year we spent a lot more time building the car and making it work, " said Martin Miner, C-NS team adviser and technology education teacher. "This year we spent more time designing and following our design to build the car."

Their hard work paid off once again.

C-NS won first place in the hydrogen fuel-cell classification at the national Shell Eco-Marathon Americas 2010 extreme mileage competition March 27 and 28 in Houston. The team took home a $2,500 cash prize, which the team plans to use toward next year's design, Miner said.

Their car achieved an equivalent of 1,837 miles per gallon, better than the four university teams that also entered the hydrogen fuel-cell class. Fuel cell cars would provide great mileage, but they're costly -- one recent estimate placed the cost of such a car at $300,000.

Overall, the hydrogen fuel-cell car designed and built by seven C-NS students this school year was more efficient than 39 of the 42 teams -- the majority of which were colleges and universities -- that competed last month on the city streets of Houston.

"It's a big competition and it's a big reward, " Miner said. "It's probably a top accomplishment in the time I've been teaching to reach this height."

Senior Kevin Thyne was the team manager and backup driver; junior Nick Pietricola was the team's driver; and sophomore Michael Ann Baker was the chief body designer, responsible for the shape of the car, Miner said.

"It was one of the best experiences I've had ever, " said Baker, 15, of Cicero. "It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot."

The students used computer software to design the car from scratch. The design process began in September and wrapped at the end of January. During that time, the students worked with mentors and researched aerodynamic shapes, steering and what light weight materials they could use to build the car.

Ted Kliszczewicz, a senior training instructor at Carrier Corp.'s Bynum Training Center, helped the students with the electronics. Kliszczewicz and another mentor Steve Grimaldi, a service engineer for Carrier, both worked with the students to incorporate the ultracapacitors into the fuel cell design that helped C-NS obtain higher mileage.

Thyne's parents, Andy and Becky Thyne, are both engineers at Lockheed Martin. Andy Thyne helped the students set up vehicle systems tests and analyze the data. Becky Thyne organized and coordinated the trip to Houston. Another mentor, Bill Bilbow, an aerospace engineer who works for WMB Enterprises, worked closely with the students on the design, Miner said.

"This year was a lot more planned out, " said Kevin Thyne, 18, of North Syracuse. "Last year, we had a general idea and went with it."

"The big difference between this year's car and last year's car was weight, " added Pietricola, 17, of Cicero. "We dropped 40 pounds. The motor didn't have to work as hard and it used up less hydrogen because it didn't have to push around as much weight."

The newly designed hydrogen fuel-cell car also is more aerodynamic. It has a new frame and body, among other improvements.

This year, the students added ultracapacitors to help store energy when the car was coasting and accelerating faster, as well as easing up the load on the fuel cell to improve efficiency, Thyne said.

The fuel cell was the only major component that the students reused from last year.

The team bought new wheels, a new motor, a new controller, new brakes and the materials for a new frame, Miner said. The team spent nearly $2,000 to build the car, all of which was paid for with state and federal grants.

After the students designed what their car would look like, they used pieces of wood to create a form.

ReynoldsTech, an East Syracuse company that does custom fabrication using stainless steel and plastics, worked with the students to create the plastic car body.

Northside Collision, of Cicero, painted the car in C-NS's green and blue school colors.

The students built the car in February and the first half of March until they had to ship the car to Houston. Even after they arrived at the competition, the students were making sure everything was in place and working.

Pietricola and Thyne said the course was bumpy with many potholes that had been recently repaired. Some other teams saw their cars wobble and have parts fall off. But C-NS's car had rear suspension and stayed in one piece.

"This year we tried to drive a lot smarter, " Pietricola said. "Last year it was guess and check. We didn't really know what data to collect because we didn't know what data they used to get the efficiency. This year, we knew what data to look at to drive more efficiently."

Pietricola said he drove 13 races, each of which lasted 25 minutes; Thyne drove one 25-minute race. They were traveling at about 15 to 20 mph around a square-like city block near the convention center in Houston.

"We had an idea of how well we were doing, but we didn't know how our competitors were doing, " Pietricola said. "With the track being as small and bumpy and tight as it was with so many cars on it, I was surprised we were able to do as well as we did."

A few days after returning home with a first-place trophy, the students said all the late nights and extra hours they put into building the hydrogen fuel-cell car had paid off.

"There were a couple intense nights ... I didn't get home until 9, 10 o'clock some nights, and that's when I'd start my homework, " Thyne said. "I lost a couple hours' sleep, but it was definitely worth it. It was really awesome to see everything work as we hoped it would."

Miner, who has been teaching for 17 years and has been the engineering club advisor for the past seven, said it was rewarding to see the students work together, learn about engineering and apply their skills hands-on.

But he also said there's always more to learn.

"I think we have a good car and we won't have to make any major changes, " Miner said. "But there's always room for improvement. We still want to break 2,000 miles per gallon."